Cleaning and Structuring Historical Data
Working sheet · Jim Clifford · 15 October 2026
Mark up Balmer
Colonial Office List, 1936, Record of Services. OCR excerpt, entry col1936-p832b11. A source reference lets us return to the page; the OCR is not the page image.
BALMER, F. E.—Dep. chief acctnt., G.P.O., E. Africa Prot., Mar., 1919; ch. acctnt., G.P.O., Kenya, Oct., 1919; ch. acctnt., Kenya-Uganda-Tanganyika post and tel. service, 1933; senr. dep. P.M.G., do., 1935.
Three minutes: underline the last two positions, circle their places and box their years. What does “do.” refer to? How would you record that the place was inherited?
My decision and reason:
The target is one event per posting: position, place, start and end year, acting status, and whether the place was inherited. Keep the source reference and printed wording alongside the interpretation.
A second entry for later
Colonial Office List, 1889, entry col1889-p554b20.
TRIMEN, HENRY, M.B. (Lond.), F.R.S., F.L.S. —Formerly lecturer on botany at St. Mary’s Hospital, London, 1867 to 1875; was senior assistant to department of botany, British Museum, 1869 to 1879; director Royal Botanical Gardens, Ceylon, Feb., 1880; author of numerous works and papers on pure and applied botany.
Two appointments overlap. Should the record preserve both? Is “British Museum” an institution, a location, or both for your research question?
Keep the decisions visible
| Question | Decision |
|---|---|
| Structure | What counts as an event? |
| Clean | Merge, keep apart, or review? |
| Ground | Supported, unresolved, or wrong? |
Build. Extract. Visualise. See. Fix. Rerun.
Your data: what counts as a record in your collection?
Site, exercises and worked answers: jimclifford.ca/imperial-careers-workshop
Three decisions with reasons
Take six minutes. Choose accept, reject, or unresolved for each proposal. Give the evidence that decided it; if unresolved, say what you would check. We will discuss R8 together.
R1 · Blakely
Source, Colonial Office List 1905: “BLAKELY, DONALD QUENTIN.—Clk., atty.-gen.’s off., B. Honduras, Apl., 1898.”
Proposal: birth year 1898; one posting, “Clk., atty.-gen.’s officer”, in B. Honduras, with no event year.
The place and position are recognisable, and the model was told to extract only printed facts. But the entry has no birth clause; its date belongs to the appointment. “Off.” means office here.
Decision and reason: ______________________________________________________
R3 · Abery and Carbery
ABERY, Joseph: M.B.C.M.; 1867 Ceylon, assistant colonial surgeon; one edition (1897).
CARBERY, Joseph: M.B.C.M.; same dated appointment; six editions, including 1897.
Proposal: merge the biographies. The forename, qualification and appointment agree, and the shorter surname could be an OCR loss. Against: the surnames differ, and one shared event may need corroboration.
Decision and reason: ______________________________________________________
R8 · Harris
Source, Colonial Office List 1927 (OCR excerpt; omissions marked): “HARRIS, SIR CHARLES ALEXANDER … B. 1858; scholar, prizeman, and Porteus medallist of Christ’s Coll., Camb.; … gov. and c. in c., Newfoundland, 1st Nov., 1917; assumed govt., 17th Dec., 1917; ret., 1922.”
The retrieved Charles Alexander Harris item names Christ’s College and the Newfoundland governorship, but gives birth in 1855.
Proposal: accept the identity link, preserve 1858 as the source reading, record 1855 separately and flag the disagreement.
The name, college and office agree. The dates conflict; the OCR alone cannot tell us whether the discrepancy began in scanning, printing or the external record. The accounts may also share an underlying source.
Decision and reason: ______________________________________________________
Next evidence to check: ____________________________________________________
Accepting an identity and correcting a source are separate decisions.